Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1989, published 76th ILC session (1989)

With reference to its previous comments on legislative interventions which, in practice, follow strikes in different sectors, the Committee takes note of the Government's report and of the conclusions reached by the Committee on Freedom of Association in Cases Nos. 1443 (presented by the Danish Computer Workers' Trade Union) and 1470 (presented by several national workers' federations including the Danish Seamen's Union) (approved by the Governing Body respectively in November 1988 and February-March 1989: see 259th Report, paragraphs 163 to 197, and 262nd Report, paragraphs 33 to 78).

According to the Government's report, during 1987 collective bargaining for the renewal of agreements took place without industrial action on a major scale although in a few minor fields in the public sector the Government was obliged to intervene to end industrial action and prolong the agreements: Act No. 246 of 8 May 1987 for junior hospital doctors, Act No. 542 of 20 August 1987 for computer workers, Act No. 657 of 15 October 1987 for the seamen running the only island ship service for the state-owned company "Bornholmstrafikken", and Act No. 289 of 20 May 1987 for ambulance drivers and emergency fire-service workers. In the private sector, it states that Parliament adopted Act No. 408 of 1 July 1988 to set up the Danish International Ships' Register, the aim of which is to improve the competitiveness of the Danish merchant fleet and thus to strengthen employment on board Danish ships. Section 10 of this Act introduces special rules concerning collective agreements for ships registered on the Danish International Ships' Register which necessitate the renegotiation of existing agreements.

The Committee regrets that, despite its comments made over recent years on such interventions, the Government has again resorted to statutory prohibitions of strikes in a number of sectors and, in addition, to interference in current collective agreements for certain Danish-flag ships. It recalls, as does the Committee on Freedom of Association, that recourse to strike action is one of the essential means available to workers and their organisations for the promotion and defence of their occupational interests and that restrictions on strikes should be limited to public servants acting in their capacity as agents of the public authority or to workers in essential services, namely those whose interruption could endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. The Committee considers that several of the sectors involved in the various legislative interventions do not meet this criterion.

Observing that negotiations in a few sectors are to open in the spring of 1989, the Committee expresses the hope that the Government will remove the prohibition of strikes in those fields which are not essential in the strict sense of the term.